For over a decade, the United States has undergone a slow, though significant transformation in drug policy. Public Opinion has shifted to support harm-reduction policies, away from criminalization of users, and providing some resources for problem users.
Still, 80 percent of 1.5 million drug arrests in America were for possession.
The harm that Draconian drug policies have brought to communities of color can’t be undone just by decriminalizing marijuana or reducing sentences for non-violent offenders. Not even by reducing the sentence disparities between crack and powder cocaine.
The mass incarceration, especially black and brown men in America has destroyed communities that will need time and effective trauma-informed solutions to start healing.
In Del Paso Heights, we met a group of mentors who are trying to correct a broken path for the next generation.
"Me and my brothers, we know we had a lot to do with the community getting disconnected. We just feel like right now it is our time and it's hard to get back and try to make it better," said Damond Dorrough, Brother to Brother mentor.
Mervin Brookins, one of the program's founders said Brother to Brother is in the business of redeeming men, because "The world recognizes the value of an aluminum can before it will a black man."
Jason Bonner was due to serve three years in prison but is giving back to the community, since the D.A. agreed to let him serve in the program instead.
According to Dorrough, drugs took the neighborhood by storm starting in the 1980's when he was a teen. He remembered, "That was a bad influence. Selling the dough to everybody. Parents got hooked on drugs and the kids started coming in second or third."
This was at the height of the war on drugs, a series of policies that resulted in the mass incarceration of millions of Americans with men of color being more likely to be stopped searched arrested and convicted than white men. And, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission black men receive sentences that are 20 percent longer than white men for the same crimes.
Brookins explained that once someone has a record, a self-perpetuating cycle begins, which is why Brother to Brother is looking to inspire a new path for Del Paso Heights, improve police relations with the community, by working directly with Chief Hahn and helping brown and black men especially, to deal with the trauma and emotions, whether they have a record or just not performing at their best in school.
Brookins spoke about the difficulties of finding work after a criminal conviction, "After the doors closed, who's going to keep going? If you don't have the job you still got to support yourself you still got to feed your family. So what are you going to do?" He said this is when people resort to crime.
Brother to Brother takes a proactive approach, from the level of every individual, with the goal of positively impacting an entire community. But as long as our correctional system remains uncorrected and politically powerful, the systemic failures of the war on drugs will require much bigger solutions.